My said Lord the President acceded to this request and, considering the said Gilles’ profound contrition, accorded him this favor: the said execution carried out as abovestated, he will allow his body, having previously been opened and embraced by the flames, to be placed in a coffin and buried in this city of Nantes, in whatever church the said Gilles designates. For which the said Gilles thanked the said Lord the President, asking that his aforesaid body be buried in the church of the Carmelite monastery of Notre-Dame in Nantes.
My said Lord the President expressed satisfaction with this resolution. Moreover, the said Gilles asked my said Lord the President to be so kind as to request the Bishop of Nantes and the men of his church to arrange a general procession in order to ask God to maintain in him and his said servants the firm hope of salvation; which was apparently accorded him by my said Lord the President.
Thus signed: De Touscheronde.
The Executions of Lord de Rais, and Henriet and Poitou, his Servants
In the performance of the said sentences pronounced against the said Gilles de Rais, and against his servants Henriet and Poitou, they were led together to the place prepared for the said execution, in a field not far above the bridges of Nantes. And earlier that same day, at nine o’clock or thereabouts, a general procession took place wherein a great multitude of people prayed to God for the said condemned, who were present at the said place of execution; the said Gilles de Rais confessed and exhorted his aforesaid servants on the subject of the salvation of their souls, urging them to be strong and virtuous in the face of diabolical temptations, and to have profound regret and contrition for their misdeeds, but also to have confidence in the grace of God and to believe that there was no sin a man might commit so great that God in His goodness and kindness would not forgive, so long as the sinner felt profound regret and great contrition of heart, and asked Him for mercy with a great deal of perseverance. And God was closer to forgiving and receiving the sinner in His grace than the sinner was to asking His forgiveness. And they should thank God for having shown them such a sign of love, He who required them to die in the fullness of their strength and memory, and did not permit them to be punished suddenly for their wrongs, and who gave them such an ardent love of Him and such great contrition for their misdeeds that they no longer had anything in this world to fear from death, which was nothing but a short death, without which one could not see God in all His glory. And they ought very much to desire to be out of this world, where there was nothing but misery, so as to enter into eternal glory. And thus, as soon as their souls left their bodies, those who had committed evil together would thereby meet each other again in glory, with God, in paradise. And he begged them to be sure to do as he asked, and to persevere in the little time remaining to them, lest they should lose the glory that never again would be lost to them. The said Henriet and Poitou then thanked the said Gilles de Rais for the good advice and warning he had given them on the salvation of their souls, his exhorting them to hold their deaths in this world as something agreeable, given the great desire that they had for God’s grace and their certainty of entering paradise in His glory, praying to their master to seek for himself what he counseled them in. And after having exhorted them thus, Gilles got down on his knees, folding his hands together, begging God’s mercy, praying to Him to be willing to punish them not according to their misdeeds, but, being merciful, to let them profit by the grace in which he put his trust, telling the people that as a Christian, he was their brother, and urging them and those among them whose children he had killed, for the love of Our Lord’s suffering to be willing to pray to God for him and to forgive him freely, in the same way that they themselves intended God to forgive and have mercy on themselves. Recommending himself to holy Monsignor Jacques, whom he had always held in singular affection, and also to holy Monsignor Michel, begging them in his hour of great need to be willing to help him, aid him, and pray to God for him, despite the fact that he had not obeyed them as he should have. He further requested that the instant his soul left his body, it might please holy Monsignor Michel to receive it and present it unto God, whom he begged to take it into His grace, without punishing it according to its offenses. And the said Gilles then made beautiful speeches and prayers to God, recommending his soul to Him. And then, so as to set his aforesaid servants a good example, he wished to die first. Just before his death, his said servants told him and implored him to be a strong and valiant knight in the love of God, asking him to remember His suffering, which had been for our Redemption. Which Gilles de Rais died repentant. And before the flames could open his body and entrails, it was drawn away and his body placed in a coffin and carried inside the Carmelite church of Nantes, where it was buried. And immediately the said Henriet and Poitou were hanged and burned, such that they were reduced to ashes. And they had felt much contrition and regret for their misdeeds, and they had persevered in this contrition and this regret to the end.
Thus signed: De Touscheronde.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOSSARD, Abbot Eugène. Gilles de Rais, Maréchal de France. 8 vols. Paris, 1886.
BOURDEAUT, Abbot A. Chantocé, Gilles de Rays et les Ducs de Bretagne. 8 vols. Rennes, 1924. Reprinted from Mémoires de la Société d’Histoire et d’Archéologie de Bretagne, 1924, pp. 41-150.
FLEURET, Fernand. See HERNANDEZ, Lodovico.
GABORY, Emile. La Vie et la Mort de Gilles de Raiz, dit à tort Barbe-Bleue. Paris, 1926.
HERNANDEZ, Lodovico. Le Procès inguisitorial de Gilles de Rais, Maréchal de France, with an Essai de Rehabilitation. 8 vols. Paris, 1922. [A literal translation of the canonical trial, and a recreation of the civil trial.]
HUYSMANS, Joris-Karl. Là-Bas. Paris, 1891.
REINACH, Salomon. “Gilles de Rais.” Cultes, Mythes et Religions. 8 vols. Paris, 1912. Vol. 4: 267-299. First published in Revue de l’Université de Bruxelles, (December 1904): 161-182.
VILLENUEVE, Roland. Gilles de Rays. Une grande Figure diabolique. Paris, 1955.
1 Dom H. MORICE, “Mémoire des héritiers de Gilles de Rais pour prouver sa prodigalité,” Mémoire …, Vol. II, col. 1338.
2 The opinion that we express here on the resemblances between the history of Gilles de Rais and the story of Bluebeard has been given in precise terms by Charles PETIT-DUTAILLIS, who writes (in Charles VII, 1902, p. 183): “We do no want to say that Gilles de Rais was Bluebeard’s prototype. The story of Bluebeard and his seven wives appears to be of ancient and popular source and is not in itself analogous to that of Gilles de Rais, who did not marry but once and left his wife to live a life apart; but it is certain that in Brittany and in the Vendee the people have amalgamated the story of Bluebeard and the history of Lord de Rais.”
3 Abbot E. BOSSARD, Gilles de Rais, maréchal de France, 1st cd. (1885), p. 399.
4 These poor folk were able to be led to this identification by the difficulty of speaking to their children about the scandalous story of Marshal de Rais. The name Bluebeard corresponds as well to the designated figure.
5 A. BOURDEAUT, Chantocé, Gilles de Rays et les Ducs de Bretagne, p. 78.
6 Op. cit., p. 67.
7 Reciprocally, would not the ordinary man assume, in his conception of sovereignty, that it has an equivalence to crime?
8 See Georges DUMÉZIL, Les Dieux des Germains (Paris, 1939), in 16mo, passim.
9 G. DU FRESNE DE BEAUCOURT, Histoire de Charles VII, Vol. 3 (Paris, 1885), pp. 389-390.
10 Indeed, Salomon Reinach, who did not possess but a cursory and incomplete knowledge of the documents, formerly attributed this extravagant certitude of salvation to his innocence! (cf. pp. 138-141).
11 It is a well-known hymn, the first verse of which is Alma Redemptoris Mater …
12 A. BOURDEAUT, Chantocé, Gilles de Rays et les Ducs de Bretagne, p. 46.
13 A. BOURDEAUT, op. cit., p. 52.
14 A. BOURDEAUT, op. cit., p. 54.
15 A. BOURDEAUT, op. cit., p. 56, note 1.
16 Dom H. MORICE, “Mém
oire des héritiers dc Gilles de Rais pour prouver sa prodigalité,” in Mémoires …, vol. II, col. 1337.
17 S. REINACH, Gilles de Rais, p. 270.
18 A. BOURDEAUT, op. cit., p. 64.
19 PERCEVAL DE CAGNY, in QUICHERAT, Procès … de Jeanne d’Arc, vol. IV, p. 26.
20 E. COSNEAU, Arthur de Richemont, p. 180.
21 E. COSNEAU, op. cit., p. 208.
22 A. BOURDEAUT, op. cit., p. 76.
23 jean de BOURDIGNÉ, Histoire agrégative des annales et chroniques d’Anjon … , fol. 137 verso.
24 E. BOSSARD, Gillés de Rais, Marerhal de France, pp. 70-77.
25 Op cit., p. 70.
26 E. BOSSARD, op cit., pp. 77-78.
27 A. BOURDEAUT, op cit., p. 78.
28 Op. cit., p. 79.
29 E. BOSSARD, op Cit., p. 78.
30 E. BOSSARD), op. cit., pp. 61-62.
31 Dom H. MORICE, op. cit., vol. 11, col. 1357-1358.
32 Le Mystère du Siège d’Orléans. Published after the Vatican manuscript … This very long theatrical piece, which dates from the years following the siege, represents its various episodes.
33 Dom H. MORICE. op. cit., col. 1338.
34 A. BOURDEAUT, op. cit., pp. 86-87.
35 A. BOURDEAUT, op. cit., pp. 91, 92, and 93.
36 A. BOURDEAUT, op. cit., pp. 95, 96.
37 A. BOURDEAUT, op. cit., p. 98.
38 J. QUICHERAT, Procès de Jeanne d’Arc, vol. V, pp. 319 and ff.
39 J. QUICHERAT,, op. cit., vol. V, p. 281.
40 G. du Fresne de BEAUCOURT, Histoire de Charles VII, vol. III, p. 402.
41 J. QUICHERAT, op. cit., vol. V, p. 334.
42 A. BOURDEAUT, op. cit., p. 108.
43 J. QUICHERAT, op. cit., vol. V, pp. 332-334.
44 E. COSNEAU, op. cit., p. 309.
45 The “President of Brittany” or “Universal Judge of Brittany” sits on the secular court of Nantes and, above that, on judicial sessions in the general parliament of the duchy. Along with the Chancellor of Brittany, Jean de Malestroit, and the treasurer-general, Geoffroy Le Ferron (the brother of Jean Le Ferron, Gilles’ victim), he is one of the most important officers of the Duke of Brittany. “In the Breton judicial organization, he occupies the foremost position,” affirms DURTELLE DE SAINT-SAUVEUR in his Histoire de Bretagne des origines à nos jours, 4th ed., vol. I, p. 331.
46 Jean CHARTIER, Chronniqiie de Charles VII …. recent ed ….by VOLLET DE VIRIVILLE …, vol. II.pp. 5 — 6.
47 Our emphasis.
48 A. BOURDEAUT Chantocé, Gilles de Rays et le Ducs de Bregne, p. 148.
49 That is Abbot Bourdeaut“s opinion (op. cit., p. 148).
50 A. BOURDEAUT, op. cit., p. 114, note 2.
51 A. BOURDEAUT, op. cit., p. 121.
52 Op. cit., p. 135.
53 Op. cit., p. 137.
54 It is through Abbot Bourdeaut, by means of the archival documents, that we know of Prelati’s adventures after his master’s death (op. cit., pp. 128-130).
55 A. BOUKDEAUT, op. cit., p. 130.
56 In Essai sur les Mœurs, ch. LXXX.
57 saloon REINACH, “Gilles de Rais,” in Cultes, Mythes et Religions, vol. IV, (Paris: 1912), in 8vo, pp. 267-299.
58 We cite as an exception the work of Dr. Lodovico FERNANDEZ, the pseudonym of Fernand FLEURET: Le Proces inquisitorial de Gilles de Rais (Paris: 1922), in 8vo. The author, in a preface that is an essay for rehabilitation and that precedes a very defective translation from Latin, restricts himself to reproducing Salomon Reinach’s arguments. On the other hand, scholars like Emile Gabory (La Vie et la Mort de Gilles de Rais … Paris, 1930) and Abbot Bourdeaut (Chantocé, Gilles de Rays et le Duc de Bretagne, Rennes, 1924) have no doubt about the guilt that emerges from the totality of documents. In particular, Abbot Bourdeaut has an extraordinary familiarity with the details. It is he who pointed out that the sum due Jean Labbé for the Marshal’s arrest was not paid until 1467, which, if he had been an accomplice in the plot, would not have been conceivable.
59 Falschoods that he believed himself capable of authenticating by his own authority, as unduly as he believed himself capable of styling the falsification of Gilles de Rais’ trial.
60 Charles-Victor Langlois, former director of the French Archives.
61 That consequently these crimes are not as inexplicable as they seemed to him. This is a question, in fact, of a great Hungarian lady Erszebeth Bathory, of the royal family, whom Valentine Penrose (Merrure de France publications) made the object of a study. In truth, Erszebeth Bathory did not kill children: she tortured and put to death young girls, but in her castle her victims were, like the Marshal’s, innumerable-. Behind the high walls of feudal lords and ladies many horrors were possible: arresting persons of princely rank did not catch on quickly. At least in times as backward as, for France, the first part of the 15th and, for Hungary, the end of the 16th century.
62 E. BOUSSARD, Gilles de Rais … , 1st ed. (1885), pp. 393-397.
63 Vol. II (Paris. 1867), in 4vo, pp- 214-215.
64 Légendes bretonnes (Paris, 1863), in 18mo.
65 Apparently this concerns the transcript, drafted the next day, as reported in the legal notice that follows.
66 In Latin: de Alnetis.
67 Translator’s note: see p.158, note 2.
68 In Old French in the original Latin text: “Je ne feroye rien pour vous comme evesque de Nantes.”
69 François Prelati.
70 Étienne Corrillaut, called Poitou.
71 Étienne Corrillaut, called Poitou.
72 André Buchet.
73 Translator’s note: italicized in the French {douves}.
74 These facts are inexactly related: see p. 97.
75 Spelled Sceva or Seva in the Latin text.
76 Evidently this last sentence was tacked on after a formal reading of the bill of indictment, which occurred October 13, 1440. Gilles de Rais’ first confessions date from October 15th.
77 Antoine de Palerne.
78 François Prelati.
79 Jean Petit, the alchemist, not to be confused with Jean Petit, notary public of Nantes.
80 His deposition, of October 17, 1440, is given below (p. 226).
81 His deposition, of the same day, is given below (p. 217).
82 His deposition, of October 16, 1440, is given below (p. 203).
83 His deposition, of October 17, 1440, is given below (p. 210).
84 These two witnesses’ depositions are not included in the documents that have come down to us. We know that Perrine Martin died in prison, apparently some time after October 15th. And a certain Stephanie, or Tiphaine, appears below as detained at the same time as La Meffraye (p. 265 and note 22).